Just where to find the trees

After i mentioned about the trees i was asked about where the trees could be found. Below are a couple of pictures of where the trees are to be found. The bottom picture is the one where the sat nav settings are for for the second place just drive past the first about a couple of Kilometres and it's this one where the bigger trees are to be found.

The sat nav settings are as follows.
40 09 06 46 N
08 15 19 33 W

I hope that this is of help not just to the person who asked but others as well.

Dinner and fruit tree's

I went to buy some more trees today from a place that grow there own trees and sell all over Portugal. The place is so big you would get 20 Asda type shops in it, it really is that big. Well after travelling about 10 miles or  more i came to a stop only to find it closed. Fortunately it was not far from Lousa where there is a Lidl, Intermarche and a Contenente so it was time to catch up with shopping. There were a couple of good bargains, Mango's ideal for Chutney at 1.40€ a kilo.  Boneless Pork loin 3.99€ a Kilo and some Burgers 30% off plus two free also Mango juice and Pair juice at 39 cents a litre. So it turned out a good day after all.

On the way back we called at the bar outside of Poraris for dinner. Like last week we arrived late but as i suspected they could always come up with something. I had roast beef and Tony had ham and eggs with all the trimmings. This bar is the only one you can get a mug of English tea and it's Typhoo at that.

Roast Rib of Beef
Gravy
Roast potato's
Carrots
Broccoli
Broad Beans
Green Beans
Cauliflower Cheese
Parsnip
Yorkshire Pudding.

Monday it's a trip to Goifal to order my new window for the kitchen and then of to the tree growers again. A double glazed window fitted with an aluminium frame for only 79€.

 I want to get a couple of grape vines and maybe a couple of more cherries. When Lidl had fruit tree's i should have got more than i did as the ones i got are doing very well.

Back onto the kitchen

It's been a long time coming but work is again underway in my kitchen. For various reasons work has been delayed but mainly down to getting insulated plasterboard of the size i want. My ceiling height is just over 2.4 meters high and a normal board would have left me with a gap i would have had to fill. I have now been able to get the boards that go from floor to ceiling nicely.

A friend to take me to get them but the day started of badly, his van ran out of diesel just close to his home. After getting more diesel we were of and soon had the boards and arrived home. To store the boards they had to go on the floor of the kitchen but here we go a but. The room is 2650mm wide and the boards are 2600mm long, so that leaves me with just 50mm so i have to be careful moving the boards to cut them for putting up on the wall.

I had a thin batten that i cut down to the size i need to go on the wall and it worked great but and another but the back of each sheet is the insulation so cutting with a Stanley blade only cuts the board. Next you have to cut from the other side the insulation. It's easy when you have the room to do it only i have only 50mm spare but i got it cut and the picture below shows the first board up in position. Now all i need to do is the rest.

Watch this space as they say.

Below is Day two more walls and panels done.

 Board up and even the electric cable is through.

Ready for the finishing touch's and ready for the sill and window trims.

Double glazed aluminium window. Bargain

It's strange thing but a window on the side of a house where the ground is not owned by the house has to have bars in the window so that the house owner can't get access to the land outside. Strange rule but there it is.

I spoke to a lawyer this week and asked his opinion as to having a window in a wall that could not be opened. The answer he gave me was that so the window couldn't open it would be ok. In my kitchen i have no window in one wall and if i did i would have a view of the valley. Now i know i can have a window to enjoy the view i went for a price for the window with double glazing to a local firm.

I went with a size of 100cm X 75cm aluminium frame and fitted including tax 79.45€.  I had expected a price if about 150€ so i was very happy with the price i was offered. I am now waiting on a couple of local builders for a price to cut a hole in the wall.

All my fruit trees are replanted from the pots that where there homw

A couple of days ago i decided it was time to move my orange and lime tree from the tubs that has been home to then for the last year. On the new bit of land that i brought last year i planted my Blueberry bush and a Red currant bush. It seemed a good spot so i planted the orange and lime trees. I have also a lemon tree that was planted under a Cherry tree that is due to be chopped down when i can get my friend the tree surgeon to call. he lemon tree now has a new home along side the orange and lime tree sitting all day in the sun. The orange tree has loads of small flowers on it and the lemon has signs of growth it's just the Lime that needs to get a move on.

My seeds are also doing very well the first to show where the Yellow tomatos followed by the Cherry tomatos today peppers had started to come through so hopefully a good crop when they are all planted out.

Sunday dinner Beef and all the trimmings and a Chicken Curry

I mentioned a few weeks ago about a bar i went to with a couple of friends. We found that the bar is owned by an English guy called Peter. His staff are all English there is Joann who seems to work during the week. Best of all she is from Liverpool like me and an Evertonian. On a Sunday there is another English girl and after asking her name i have forgotten it so i hope she is not to upset by me forgetting her name.

The kitchen is run by Claire and Dom, Claire is the chef and very good she is and Dom is in charge of the restaurant area to the right of the bar.  Sundays they do a full UK meat and veg including Yorkshire pudding. As we hadn't booked we nearly didn't get a meal. When we arrived they had no Cauliflower Cheese sauce left but Sunday dinner for my friend who is staying with me. As Ann had some curry left i had that as  wanted to try a curry. It's the first time i have had a curry while dinning out. Sunday dinner for two and a half lire of Red wine and a coke for me because i was driving came to 13.70€ a good deal for good food.

This Friday they are having a Thai night including Thai Green curry. It starts at 7.30pm and with the menu i heard for 12€ it sounded a bargain to me. But yes a But every story has to have one. On a Friday night a couple who live in a village near to me run the local club house in the village and a number of the local Brits meet there, at first it was just the local Brits who turned up but now the locals also call in to use the place.

Has the rain stopped?

For a number of months it has rained constantly, it was so bad that trees on hillsides have just fallen over as the ground has become weak due to the rain. The ground has become so full of water that for weeks the rain water has just been running down the hillsides.

At the sides of the main roads, side roads and country lanes the hillsides have been collapsing and in places the roads and lanes have become blocked. The local lawyer tells me that it's been the worst winter in over 45 years.

For the last few days we have had clear blue skies and the temperature today was 24c, lets hope that the bad days of the winter have gone and we can now enjoy the kind of weather that Portugal is famous for.

Back to the car

On one of the forums i am someone has put how he made his car legal and he described in great detail how he did it.

I replied with how i had done it with a day preparing and a day to get things done. What i put here on my Blog was true and almost accurate. I didn't mention that while i was still living in the UK i had started to get things together as it was easy to do things while still in the country where i need information from.

I spent from September 2007 when i first stared to get interested in Portugal getting all the information together when i decided i wanted to move i had lots of information in place for when i moved.

The poster questioned how i could do it in a day with a days preparation, i should have mentioned that i organized things as i went along. I got my Certificate of Conformity a long time before my move as it was easy to organized from the UK than wait till i moved to my new home in Portugal. You need your tyres to be in matched pair and tow bars unless fitted by the car maker, in my case i had the tow bar fitted so that had to be removed.

So really he was right it did take more than a day to prepare but i only used the advice from posters on the various Forums that i use.

Drill bits use once and throw away.

When i returned from my stay in Liverpool i went to the timber yard for some battens for the walls in my kitchen. The battens are for the insulated plasterboard to be fixed onto.  Me being me thinking i understood about metric measurements and not having a tape measure guessed what i wanted and got it completely wrong. I now know that one centimetre is not and inch in fact one centimetre is only a little over a third of an inch. I had ordered the timber and when i went for it i could not say that i didn't want it after it had been made for me so i had to take it that was a waste of money.  I Had ordered one centimetre by three centimetre's to me that was one inch by three inch's. I won't maker that mistake again.

I went to get more battens on Wednesday and this time i measured correctly and got just what i wanted. Today Friday i started to put the battens up on the wall ready for the plasterboard that i should get Monday of next week.

I had to drill and plug the walls to take the battens and i had hoped to get at least one wall  done how wrong i was. I had a brand new twist drill for the holes and before long it was blunt ands unusable, i found two more in a box of drill bits and these where blunt before i could finish the wall. I don't know what the wall is made of but at this rate it will cost more for drill bits that the cost of the kitchen.

Last parcel arrived and back to making bread

After being kept in for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and till 3.30pm today i am now free. The last parcel i was waiting for has arrived late but it has arrived. It was a new breadmaker, when i got back from visiting Liverpool i found that i couldn't find the paddle in my breadmaker that i had had for a number of years. A new paddle delivered to me from the UK was £17.97 for another £30 i could have a new breadmaker.

With my old machine the recipe for the loaf i make was as follows.

300ml water
1 tsp Salt.
1 tsp Sugar
400 gram flour
1 tsp yeast

Ever loaf came out great and i was very happy with the machine.

The new machine for the same recipe was

300ml Milk
1½ tbsp Olive oil
1½ Salt
2 tbsp Sugar
450 gram Flour
2 tsp Yeast.

The ingredients and there percentages are different and with a little work i will be making bread as good as i was before. The first loaf i cooked was very good but not as good as those i had made before. But for now a little tweaking and i will soon have the bread i have been making in the past.

Let down by a parcel carrier

I have been waiting for UPS and MRW to deliver three parcels. I waited in all day yesterday and nothing came, i waited in all day today and at 5.15pm i decided to use the tracking on the MRW site. The parcel had left there depot at 8.47am this morning and was marked on site for deliver today. I waited all day and when i checked it said it had been delivered at 16.46pm. It said it was received by " Unknown Person ". What that means the driver couldn't be bothered to deliver and by marking delivered he could finish for the day and redeliver another day. When i phoned to ask what was going on i was told it would be delivered tomorrow Wednesday, that's another day kept in.

It wouldn't be so bad but the things i want to do mean i have to go out to get the things i need to carry on with the work i am doing.

UPS has two parcels for me and at least i know they will be here on Wednesday.

Well at least UPS delivered today but i a still one parcel short. MRW being the other carrier and they are now very late but at least they called today to say the driver will arrive tomorrow.